


The Faces Behind the Veils

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Ofinn Börn [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Norse Mythology, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, F/F, GFY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-28
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-26 20:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1702010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hel's life as Maria Hill from Jörmungandr's discovery of JARVIS through the dissolution of SHIELD.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Iron Man

"He already has a reputation for being reckless - look at what he's done to attract you, if you want a recent example - and he's barely more than a child." Hel leans against the wall of her apartment, the listening devices she knows SHIELD has there hearing nothing but her singing to the radio playing as loudly as she dares. No need for them to figure out she's done more to the apartment than a normal woman might, and that her neighbors would hear nothing she doesn't want them to hear.

"I know." Jörmungandr sounds utterly unconcerned, but he always does. Even when he's poking his barely-corporeal nose into something he doesn't already know - and no matter what he says, she's certain he doesn't know what he's getting into. Neither does she, for that matter, and she's been looking over reports on Tony Stark for years now.

"Don't lose yourself to this." Hel knows the admonishment is as useless with Jörmungandr as it would have been with Fenrir, but she makes it nonetheless. They're older, but they still need someone to watch over them.

There's a snort, and a chuckle of amusement. "He is ahead of the others exploring the limits of their knowledge. Perhaps enough so to keep up with me, perhaps not, but intriguing still."

"Intriguing, and dangerous. All these mortals are." Even the ones she's most fond of are dangerous, if in perhaps different ways than those her brothers have fixated on. She has different ways of dealing with her fascinations, and she can only hope that she draws them both in close enough to protect.

"Even your pretty young ladies." Jörmungandr knows what she's doing, even without her telling him, and sometimes it's annoying. Right at the moment, she's not sure if it's more annoying or comforting, though.

"Even them." Hel smiles fondly, thinking about the recruit she had trained with, mortal and fierce and dangerous deadly. The other - still working her way closer to Hel - is equally as deadly, though her path has been very different in her life. So young to be such a weapon, but then, wasn't Hel the same?

"Do not lose yourself in them, either." Jörmungandr's voice is soft with worry, and she smiles, reaching out to stroke his nose.

"They have their roles, and I will let them have those roles, even if it puts them in more danger than I would rather. They are better at protecting themselves than yours or Fenrir's."

"In their own way. Has SHIELD found Fenrir's boy yet?"

"You know they haven't. They will, eventually, but it may be some time yet." She pauses, tilting her head to study her brother for a long moment. "If they take too long, we'll find a way to prod them where they need to go."

The soft snort is agreement enough, and they fall silent afterward.

* * *

"Find him." Jörmungandr's voice is unyielding as stone, his presence nearly strong enough to make him visible to the mortals who continue to work around Hel. They're not quite sure why they're uncomfortable, and most will put it down to Maria Hill being an intimidating supervising agent later. So long as some of the other more senior agents don't put in an appearance, she's fine.

Phil, in particular, she thinks would know too quickly that there's something different there. So would Fury, but he, at least, has enough to keep him busy for long enough to deal with this.

"Travers, you have watch. I will return shortly." There is no mention of why, though if someone asks for her reason, there are enough reasons that require little explanation she can offer up as believable. Lending them verisimilitude by stepping into the tiny toilet that is nearest the carrier's command and control.

She weaves enough of a net around her that no listening devices will hear anything, though at least she knows there should be none actually in the toilet.

"What happened?"

"He went to demonstrate a new weapon, and he has vanished."

There hasn't been any news yet of Stark's disappearance, which means it's only just happened. Her brother is faster than any form of communication the mortals have yet.

"I can do nothing until the news arrives via more conventional channels, and then I can only do what Maria Hill might do. Which may be little."

Jörmungandr sighs, the sound frustrated and annoyed. "Less even than what I can do, and tying myself to this mortal creation has limited my ability."

"It always does." Hel knows she's limited her abilities when she remains in the seeming of a mortal, but she has no reason to be anything else. Her favorites need her to be as they are, to be the one who coordinates everything, who runs everything. Who is everything except superhuman. "He will be found, if he lives, and I do not doubt his ability to think himself out of whatever and wherever he is, provided he's survived this far."

"The last contact, he had a missile about to explode near him." Jörmungandr sounds almost lost, which is something Hel has never thought her brother could be. He knows more than anyone else she knows.

"Then if it killed him, there will be news soon enough. It's the sort of thing that will spread as fast as wildfire." The death of Tony Stark would send shock-waves around the world, and Hel doesn't like the thought of what might happen after. Jörmungandr has more of a temper than either her or Fenrir, and he holds the world in unseen coils.

The destruction of the world the mortals know and cherish might be the least of their problems then.

"Promise me fair warning before you do something rash." She reaches out to rest a hand on his nose, rubbing the warm scales that are half-manifested. "I want to retrieve my mortals and my tools before the world falls apart around them."

"And our wayward brother and his boy." Jörmungandr lets out a gusty sigh, but she can already see the agreement to her plea. It will confuse the mortals if something happens, and it will reveal her to be far more than she appears, but Midgard is not the only world. They will survive, no matter what happens.

* * *

No one at SHIELD ever says anything about Maria Hill's relationships, save to whisper she can't possibly have any, because she's Nick Fury's ice queen. They wonder what happens at the poker nights, but that's more speculation as to what the relationships are between the other five who come over to Maria's every week.

They don't know Nick goes home alone to a wife he'll never talk about, that Phil has about as much interest in a relationship with anything beyond his job as a fish has in breathing air, and Clint picks up a new partner roughly once a month. No one ever thinks Melinda and Natasha don't go to the apartments everyone knows about because the accounting department is home of some of the worst gossips.

Only three people know, and no matter how much people think Clint is nearly as bad a gossip as the accountants, or that Phil files reports on everything he observes, no one will ever find out. Not because Hel has done something to keep their mouths from spilling her secrets, nor because she knows theirs, but because they're loyal to each other as much as to SHIELD.

"We should repaint the ceiling." Natasha is sprawling across the couch, relaxed in a way no one outside their poker-group ever sees. Hel tilts her head back to look at what Natasha is seeing, and smiles a little in amusement. It is rather boring, but she's never been bothered by leaving the ceiling as it is.

"We're not painting it pink." Melinda is sitting at Hel's feet, preferring to stay on the floor if she's going to be anything resembling drunk. Just as well that none of them were planning to attempt to make it back to their bedroom.

"Or black." Natasha is smiling with amusement, rolling onto her side to reach out and stroke Melinda's hair. "Blue?"

"Something summery," Hel adds, running her toes over Melinda's hip, one hand absently rubbing Natasha's shoulder. "I don't like cold blues."

They remind her too much of the one eye staring at her as it pronounced her exile. An event she still hasn't shared with either of her lovers, nor ever plans to. They know her only as Maria Hill, and unless the world goes to hell, she'd like to keep it that way.

"I'd rather green." Melinda leans her head back against Hel's knees, letting herself be petted. It's been a long few months getting back to this equilibrium, and it's good to see Melinda willing to allow herself the comfort. "Something rich."

"Not too dark." Natasha isn't fond of dark colors in general, though you wouldn't know it from looking at her wardrobe. It isn't the only thing that would surprise most of the agents who have had the misfortune of working with her, but it's one of the delightful contrasts that Hel loves about her.

"We should paint the walls, if we're going to paint the ceiling." Hel looks around the comfortable room they've turned into a safe retreat even more than the bedroom is. Warm colors, avoiding shades that remind them too much of old wounds and their work, wooden floor covered with a variety of small rugs. Well-padded furniture and shelves full of books and collected items from around the world. "Accent the green with brown."

"Hmm." Natasha wraps a lock of Melinda's hair around her finger. "That would be nice. Add some hints of blue, maybe a layered effect?"

"Marshland." Melinda turns her head enough to meet Natasha's gaze, the two reading each other with the ease of long practice. "Reeds."

It will be an interesting project, and take time, if they can find some between them. Melinda still has another week of mandatory down time from the mission gone badly, but Hel has to be at SHIELD every day during the week, and often on weekends, and Natasha's missions aren't predictable.

"I can arrange for us all to have the weekend off." Hel doesn't bother to qualify that with a caveat of them all being still certain of this when sober. The room probably should be painted, and the only thing that they might change their minds on is the colors.

"So long as the world isn't trying to end." Natasha turns her head to smile at Hel, and Hel returns it with a cheerful one of her own.

If the world is trying to end, they'll be busy trying to stop it - and if it's not going to be stopped, Hel will be too busy explaining her ability to get them all out of harm's way to worry about how they're painting their house.

* * *

It only takes a breath to whisper the danger to Jörmungandr when Nick leaves for Malibu, to talk to Stark about the Avengers Intiative. To warn him that he needs to draw back from JARVIS, or at least make the computer techs believe they've overridden the security protocols written into the AI he's subverted.

That Stark survived his trip to Afghanistan is a miracle of his intelligence and a gift to the world that he will hopefully never know the magnitude of. That he still lives despite the adventure afterward is as much because Jörmungandr will not let his mortal die so easily as it is because Stark is a genius with a grasp of science that runs past where most mortals fall.

"Why is your tool trying to recruit Tony?" Jörmungandr coils invisibly around her, comforting and seeking comfort at once. He doesn't like being seperated from Stark like Nick needed him to be - not that Nick is aware of that.

"Because he is a paranoid mortal trying to protect the world from dangers that are at the edges of science as they understand it." Hel leans her head back, feeling the give of her brother's bulk. "Stark is one of the most intelligent men he can recruit. He doesn't know he'll be recruiting you as well."

Jörmungandr snorts, his breath swirling dust motes in the air. "You won't let him find out, either." Neither of them intends for their mortals to discover the truth, but they may have little choice if the rest of the universe takes notice of the world they've fallen in love with.

"Only if he must." Hel will not leave Nick behind if she must go, anymore than she would Natasha or Melinda, Clint or Phil. "One day, he may begin to wonder what it is that keeps him about."

"They all will, those we love best." Jörmungandr sounds torn between amusement and wariness. "How did you manage to introduce him to something effective?"

"The same as the others." Hel shrugs. "I provide the place and the drinks. They do the rest, all unknowing. And it's less painful than was the first attempt."

None of them need know what she's done, not yet. They may, one day, and they may appreciate it, or they may not. It hasn't done the same as the serum she used with Steve, hasn't given them a great change of external appearance to match what they have inside, but it was never meant to.

"You are trying to do less with them than you did with Fenrir's boy." Jörmungandr knows, as he always does, and Hel huffs at him. "Only long life?"

"A few other things, but nothing too spectacular or obvious. They'll be harder to kill, though they may not know it, so long as the injury is not one that should be swiftly fatal."

"Might you do the same for Tony?"

"In time, perhaps." Hel strokes a hand over her brother's scales. "You know how to manage it yourself, if you try. You've seen what I've done."

"I have. It may not be enough." Jörmungandr falls silent a moment before he adds, "What he has done to save himself will kill him. He knows it, and he will know that something is not right if he fails to die."

"Then it will have to be something else." Hel closes her eyes a moment. It will be interesting finding a way to save her brother's mortal, if it is possible. "I will look, and see what I may find."

"Thank you."


	2. Iron Man 2

"I need an assessment." Nick is ostensibly paying attention to his cards, but Hel knows him too well to think he's only playing poker with the rest of them. Her favorite tool is particularly good at manipulating others to get the outcome he wants. What that is right now, she's not certain.

"Of who?" Melinda slides two cards to Hel to trade them, her gaze flicking to Nick a moment.

"Tony Stark." Nick is rarely so blunt about these things, and for him to do so makes Hel wonder if it's merely Stark he wants an assessment of, or if there's more to it than that. She doubts he's figured out there's someone other than Stark behind JARVIS, though she'll make sure to caution her brother just in case.

There's a snort of amusement from Clint as he sets his cards down, shaking his head. "The man's insane, but good at his job."

"Something a little more in-depth than that, Barton." Nick gives Clint a mildly annoyed glare. "And perhaps a bit less biased than my own."

Hel knows Nick thinks Stark is a menace, perhaps more so now that he's decided to be a superhero. It's not really the right frame of mind to decide if the man is suitable for Nick's plan to put together a team of superheros. Hel thinks Stark would be an ideal part of that team, but she can't tell Nick why, so she doesn't say anything at all.

"You need a team to properly assess Stark for anything." Natasha tosses a mint into the pot, her face as perfectly blank as it's possible to be without being able to completely reweave her own features. "What do you need the assessment for?"

"The Avengers Initiative." Nick doesn't need to pretend any of them are unaware of the project, since he'd first mentioned the idea on poker night, and discussed refinements and possible candidates with them since. He hadn't shown any desire to include Stark before the spectacular outing in the media of Stark being Iron Man. Even now, he's looking as if he's not sure he wants to make the suggestion, but is doing so because it's better to have Iron Man as part of their team rather than a loose cannon.

"How soon do you need it?" Natasha is looking intrigued, though it could be because Nick's tossed a pair of her favorite butterscotches into the pot.

"As soon as you can get it. You'll need to integrate into Stark Industries first, before you can get close enough to get an assessment that doesn't involve him playing up his good side for a SHIELD agent."

Phil has been remarkably quiet this whole time, though Hel knows he's been tapped to run this crazy show if Nick can get it off the ground. Either he doesn't have an opinion on Stark - which, considering the effort he went through to deal with the first incident around Iron Man, is unlikely - or he's hoping for a positive assessment.

"Natalie Rushman. She needs a better job than the paralegal for the county prosecutor's office." Natasha smiles a little as Melinda folds, and Hel does the same. It's easier to watch both games if Hel's not trying to play one of them. "And somewhere better to live than Iowa."

"I didn't think Natalie was a California sort of girl." Clint grins as Natasha gives him a decidedly unamused look. "Hey, just calling it like I see it, Nat."

"Call me Nat again, and you'll be wearing your favorite bow for a tie." Natasha smiles sweetly as Clint winces, and Phil tosses a hard candy into the pot. "Call." She adds another mint to the pot, and glances at Nick, raising an eyebrow.

"Fold." Nick sets his cards down, leaning back in his chair. "You think you can leave for LA tomorrow, Romanov?"

"If you make sure there's a job opening for me to fill, certainly." Natasha watches as Phil matches her bet with another hard candy, and lays out his cards. She doesn't change her expression as she sets hers out, and rakes the pot to her, carefully sorting the candies with the butterscotches closest to her. "Another hand?"

"I'm out." Melinda pushes back from the table, collecting her glass and Natasha's. "More wine?"

"Please." Natasha smiles, and Phil holds up his glass with a polite repetition of the request.

"I'll pass." Nick picks up one of the hard candies he'd gathered from another pot, unwrapping it and popping it into his mouth. "Hill, can I talk to you a moment?"

"Nick, or Fury?" Hel raises an eyebrow, and Nick gives her a flat look in return. It's enough of a tell that she sighs, smiling at the others. "Deal me out this hand."

She meets Melinda's gaze a moment as she heads for the back porch, tilting her head a little to reassure her that everything is all right. Just a conversation with Nick, nothing to worry about.

"I need your opinion on another project." Nick leans against the railing of her deck, to all outward appearances relaxed. It's not the most secure place to discuss work, but Hel has proven her home more secure than anywhere else, even if Nick doesn't know the details of how.

"Am I going to regret hearing about this?" Hel mirrors Nick's posture, leaning against the wall next to the door.

"Possibly." Nick rests his hands against the rail, watching her silently for a long moment before he relaxes a little more. It lets her see the weariness in his face, the stress of running a large, secret agency tasked with keeping the world safe. "You know we recovered the cosmic cube some time ago. Phase One hasn't been as successful as I'd like, and I'm thinking about implementing Phase Two. Clean energy may be something better left to Stark and his arc reactor if he can be convinced to share."

"But you think it might be better to make weapons powered by that thing." Hel doesn't bother to hide her distaste for the idea - her disapproval, that will not stop Nick if he thinks this is the best course of action. She could stop him, but that would put her in the spotlight, in as much as anyone in charge of a secret agency could be, and that is not what she'd planned when she took up this life.

Nick sighs, closing his eye, though he had to know what he answer would be. She hadn't approved of this when she first heard of it, and she still doesn't. The Tesseract - and there's another piece of information she cannot share with her mortals yet - is one of Odin's weapons he has tossed aside like an abandoned toy, as he had expected Loki to do with Hel and her brothers. She hates it with a passion she cannot show, not yet. If it continues to be used as it is, it will cause trouble, and then she can let some more of that hate show.

"What else can I do, Hill?" There's the same weariness in his voice as in his expression and posture. He's caught in a world which is beginning to push the boundaries of science faster and faster, and where chaos is growing faster than those who want order can contain it.

Hel is sure about where to place the blame, but she cannot act directly against the trouble without revealing too much and pushing humanity to act against her - or to play right into the hands of those who would use her and Jörmungandr as surely as they have been using Fenrir.

"Wait to start Phase Two. This isn't the time, not yet." Hel pauses, waiting until Nick looks at her to give him a small smile that's as weary as he is. "I know I can't stop you if you want to do this, sir, but wait."

Nick draws a deep breath, and with it, pulls his armor back on around him, slipping further away from her for the moment. She had a chance, and she passed it by in order to ensure a better chance later. She will not play her mortals entirely as puppets, or she is no better than those who tore her from her father's side.

"I'll want your recommendations on supervisors for the project, Hill, and a proposal for safety and security on it." A way of delaying it that will not stop him from putting it into operation, and a way of addressing the concerns that she has been able to bring up as Maria Hill.

"Of course, sir." Hel waits a moment before she smiles again, wryly, and nods toward the door. "Shall we return to the game."

"And see if Phil has left us anything to win off Barton and Romanov." Nick precedes her inside, and Hel lets her smile slip as she closes the back door. It's not the most dangerous conversation she could have had with Nick, but certainly one of the least comfortable.

* * *

"If he were less mad, he might have proven useful." Jörmungandr sounds mournful as he rests his head on Hel's lap. "He's plotting a further strike against Tony, and I am almost tempted to lead SHIELD straight to him just to contain him."

"Vanko would be no use to you locked away." Hel strokes her brother's nose, glad Natasha is busy with Stark, and Melinda is taking time to visit family right now. It's been harder and harder to find moments to just be with her brother, without taking a vacation to ostensibly visit Maria Hill's relatives. "Keep the knowledge from him, and if you must, whisk him away elsewhere, but do not dump him in my lap."

Jörmungandr sighs, and flicks his tongue out to touch her hand a moment. "I can't. He's too focused on Tony, and I don't have the time or patience to let him work out his problems - two generations worth of trouble, starting with Anton and Howard."

"I'll keep an eye out for anything that will allow me to warn SHIELD Vanko's not as dead as he appears to be." Hel leans her forehead against an eyeridge, staring into one of her brother's large eyes with both of her own. "Take care of Tony, and the rest will work itself out."

Her brother doesn't reply, though she can all but hear his hope that she is right and it will all be fine. Hel knows if it doesn't work out entirely well for Tony, another world will have a dying genius on their hands, with an intense need to heal him. Midgard is not the only world her brother holds in his coils.

She hopes it does not come to that.

* * *

"I don't want to talk about it." Natasha heads straight for the master bathroom as soon as she's in the door, shedding the catsuit she'd been wearing to finish the mission involving Stark. It shouldn't have come to that, but Vanko had caused more trouble than anyone at SHIELD had foreseen.

"Wine or vodka?" Hel had set the table, but it's easy enough to bring dinner into the bathroom instead. Even if Melinda looks a little frustrated by her plans being sidetracked. Romantic dinners for three weren't easy to put together, especially when the three involved all have high-stress jobs with unpredictable hours.

"Vodka. And dinner." Natasha pauses at the end of the hallway, turning to give Melinda an apologetic smile. "Please?"

"Get the bath drawn." Melinda shakes her head, but there's a small smile on her face that is as good as a vocal forgiveness. It wouldn't be the first time they've had dinner in the bath, nor will it be the last.

Hel smiles, and goes to get the vodka while Melinda pulls dinner from the oven, and Natasha prepares the bath.


	3. Thor

Mjölnir.

Her uncle's hammer.

Hel is torn between staying where she is, hidden and out of sight, and taking over Phil's role in New Mexico in order to see what has brought her uncle and his favored weapon to Midgard. Except she knows she would not be able to withstand a blow from it, if Thor were to wield it against her. Knows it would destroy her as surely as it would Fenrir. Only Jörmungandr would survive it, and even he would be sorely injured.

"He's banished from Asgard as we once were." Jörmungandr's coils may not extend to Asgard because of the fear of the gods, but he has other ways of knowing what has happened. Knows that Thor had gone to Jotunheim with their father, knows Loki has discovered what his creations already knew. Knows that Odin had been furious when he'd gone to rescue his sons, and that it had been a familiar rage.

It makes the decision to stay with the Helicarrier, to stay where she's expected to be as Maria Hill, all the harder. Jörmungandr can get the closest of them to their uncle, but even he hesitates to come too close, and thus come to the attention of Odin. They will not risk being ripped from their new world, not yet. Their mortals are still working their way toward being able to challenge Asgard.

"Watch him for me." Hel is using all the resources she has to keep an eye on their uncle, even though there's a momentary sense of guilt for using even her brother this way. "Make sure he's in good hands while he is here."

"Always." Jörmungandr is perhaps more wary of their uncle than she, but still, if Thor is banished as they are, then he is one of them. And they will protect their own.

Hel breathes out, a small smile crossing her face before she draws back on Maria Hill, and returns to the command deck of the Helicarrier. She has a job to do, and if Asgard is beginning to take an interest in Midgard once more, she has to accelerate certain plans, so she and hers are ready for the universe to come to them.

Time for her to be more than just Maria Hill again.

* * *

"Do I want to know why you're acting different?"

Melinda's hand is gentle as it strokes through Hel's hair, her expression carefully neutral in a way it hasn't been in years. Watching her to see how she'll react to Melinda's observation. It's inevitable that she'd notice that, and Hel toys with the idea of telling her no for a moment before she lets out a sigh.

"Probably not." She turns her head to press a gentle kiss to the inside of Melinda's wrist. "But you should know, anyway."

"Work-related?" Melinda rests her hand on Hel's hair, no longer moving, just watching her with an intensity that might be unnerving to some.

"No. And yes." Hel twists her lips in a wry smile. "Nothing that SHIELD has done, but instigated by something learned while on the Helicarrier."

"New Mexico." It's an easy guess, as that's the most fantastical thing SHIELD is dealing with currently, and Melinda sees all the expense reports from agents, including those out in the desert around Mjölnir.

"Mjölnir and Thor, yes." Hel closes her eyes a moment, sorting her thoughts. "This is a bit of a long story, and it's not going to sound entirely real - it's easier to tell it that way."

"I have time." Melinda has all the time they need, and Hel can only hope she stays after she learns. Natasha probably will, when Hel tells her later - and she has to, if Natasha is going to be part of Nick's little planned superhero group.

"I know." Hel pauses, drawing a deep breath before she begins. "There once was a boy who wanted to show his skills in magic to his parents, so he wove a being who would grow to encircle all the worlds and tell him what it heard...."

She tells the story of her brothers, and of herself, though she leaves a good deal out - like who Fenrir had become, and where he is, and just how much Jörmungandr has done for Stark. She doesn't tell of the life of Abraham Erskine, because no one needs to know she is capable of creating the serum that had made both Captain America and Red Skull.

"... and now, here I am, facing the interest of Asgard in my home, and afraid I will not be able to keep those I love from harm without becoming the weapon I was made to be."

Melinda hasn't interrupted her through the story, and her expression hasn't changed. She stays silent after for a while, studying Hel's face. "Your family is insane."

It's matter of fact, a simple statement, but it makes Hel smile again, though the expression is somewhat bitter. She knows those who call themselves her family are rather in need of a good deal of therapy by the standards of Midgard, but she knows they're not the sort to admit they have such faults. And Thor, at least, is getting some sort of therapy, if not the sort most of her mortals would think he needs.

"Do you intend to stay, or would you rather leave?" It's the only question that Hel truly worries about, though she will always protect Melinda to the best of her abilities.

Melinda gives her a look that tells Hel better than any words that she's being foolish, and resumes stroking her hair. "I can't promise anything more than I have in the past."

"I'm not asking anything more." Hel smiles with the relief that runs through her, and shifts closer to Melinda. "Now all I have to do is tell Natasha when she comes back from wrangling Stark."

Melinda raises an eyebrow. "Not any of the boys?"

"No. They don't need to know, not yet." Eventually they will, but not now, not yet. Only when it is absolutely necessary, when they start to wonder why they don't age, why they heal from any wound, even those that should kill them, faster or slower.

And that, she hopes, is a long time off yet.

* * *

Hel very nearly shoots her father the first time she sees Loki since Odin had banished her from Asgard. She draws a deep breath, carefully removing her finger from the trigger of her gun, and re-engaging the safety as she watches him, dressed in tunic and trews, where he is sprawled on the couch in the front room.

"You're lucky neither Melinda nor Natasha are home." That today she has off is a nod to the fact she hasn't taken a full weekend in three months. The whole week, in fact, because Nick thinks he can handle this on his own, and he would rather her take a chance to rest, because this can't be the only thing that will go wrong.

Loki's lips twitch upward in a brief smile, though there's something lurking in his eyes that twist the expression into something very nearly mad. Hel thinks back to Melinda's statement that her family is insane, and wonders just what Odin has done now, that her father is looking as he is.

"Your mortals are quite intriguing." Loki is studying her, studying the weaving of Maria Hill, and Hel can only hope he approves. "They serve you well."

There's something in there that sounds almost jealous, and Hel tenses, though she doubts she could stop her father if he decided to do something. It makes Loki laugh, shaking his head, his hands extended to the side in a gesture of peace.

"I intend them no harm, daughter, unless they stand between me and my goals." It is both reassurance and subtle threat, and Hel narrows her eyes, refusing to relax as he might intend. "I need only to get into the facility where Thor and Mjölnir are being held."

Where both Phil and Clint are assigned at the moment, and Hel is almost tempted to tell her father no, for all that she wants to protect him as she always has.

"You don't need my aid to get in, so why are you asking for it?" Hel tilts her head, curious what has brought her father here - how he could come here, to where she is, without bringing the attention and wrath of Odin down on both their heads.

"I wished to see for myself how you are faring." Loki smiles soothingly, which only makes Hel give him an exasperated look. She is not a child to need soothing. "And it will ease my way to have you and Jörmungandr to aid me."

"What do you intend to do while you are there?" Hel pauses, then adds, "Why do you even risk coming here, when Odin has banished us all from your side?"

"Odin can do nothing to stop me, nor you." Loki's smile is sharp and fierce. "I may be a foundling and the less worthy son now, but I will not always be, and when I have achieved my goals, I shall bring you all home, where you should never have needed to leave."

The idea of returning to Asgard when she has not seen it in long centuries is tempting, but Hel cannot so easily leave as Loki is saying. No matter how greatly she desires to be at her father's side, where she should be still, rather than here. But she has made something more of herself than her father's weapon, and she cannot readily abandon that.

"I will help you with the New Mexico facility, but I cannot leave Midgard. I am still Maria Hill, and I still have a life and mortals who will question if I leave suddenly. I will not leave them, and you know I cannot bring them to Asgard with me."

Loki's expression shifts, a hint of despair in his eyes that he swiftly covers, and Hel wishes she could have said differently, or that her father weren't so greatly harmed by Odin that he could be deeply cut by her choice to remain on Midgard.

"And of your brothers?" He sounds as if he has little hope left to him, and Hel hates the idea of destroying what he has left.

"If you ask him to extend his coils and voice to Asgard again, Jörmungandr will do so. He need not leave anywhere to be elsewhere as well, though he has limited his abilities here with his fascination with the mortal Stark." Hel draws a breath, thinking a moment before she speaks of Fenrir. It tears at her still that she can do nothing for him until he can free himself. "Fenrir is beyond any of us to reach at the moment. If he finds himself again, he may desire to return home, if his boy is found and is willing to take what he has been given."

Loki closes his eyes, seeming to wilt for a moment before he draws his composure around him as he does his armor. "It shall have to be enough."

Hel hopes it will be enough, and she holsters her gun, taking a step toward her father. There are still his plans for Thor and Mjölnir to discuss, and she wants to sit beside him again, to tell him of her life, and of her deeds.

It will have to be enough for now, until he succeeds in gaining Odin's favor, or decides to leave Asgard altogether.

* * *

"He's falling." Jörmungandr's voice wakes Hel out of a sound sleep, and she stiffens when she realizes just how strongly manifested her brother is in his distress. She has both of her lovers, and they are no more asleep than she, and there will be no mistaking that there is something more than them in the room.

"Who's falling?" Natasha speaks even before Hel can find the voice to chastise her brother for his indiscretion.

"Father." Jörmungandr tilts his head to fix them all with one eye, worry clear in his voice. "Thor has destroyed the Bifrost, and father is falling, and I cannot catch him. He falls past every coil I set to catch him, as if he does not desire to be saved."

"Loki?" Melinda has been paying attention to the reports, and Hel almost wishes she did not know as much about Hel's past as she does. That neither of them did, but they do, and she cannot undo what has been done, especially not at her own hand.

"Yes." Hel sits up, doubting she will be given the chance for more sleep tonight. "And if Jörmungandr cannot catch him, there is nothing we can do save watch him, and hope that he lands where he will not be destroyed."

To lose her father is something that Hel never thought she would face, nor does she like to think about. He is not mortal, and she has always thought he would forever be there.

Natasha curls a hand around her thigh, keeping Hel from leaving the bed, and Melinda rests a hand on her shoulder. Silent reassurance that they do not offer widely, and she has rarely needed before.

"So we watch, and do what we can." Natasha meets her gaze steadily, ignoring Jörmungandr entirely. It is a feat that few mortals could pull off, but it makes Hel all the prouder for her lover. "And if he needs stopping, we stop him. If he needs saving, we save him."

"And if he needs both?" Jörmungandr asks the question that they all know the answer to - that Loki will need both stopping and saving, but such a thing may be beyond them all.

"Then we do both." Melinda shrugs, a wry smile crossing her face, and the simplicity of the answer - the truth of it, for all the difficulty in doing just that - makes them all laugh. And if that laughter is a little bitter and a little manic, there is no one to tell them they should not be.


	4. Avengers

She waits until the evacuation is finished, and she's been through Medical on the Helicarrier before she shuts herself into the closet of a room she technically shares with Nick, and lets out her reaction. It's just as well the place is soundproofed, if only by her weavings, her scream of frustration and rage nearly deafening herself.

"I can watch him." Jörmungandr is not kept out by her weavings, nor is deterred by any security mortals can put up, and she's glad for that. Glad he's offering what she would have asked. "I will make sure he doesn't hurt him."

"Thank you, Jörmungandr." Hel draws a deep breath, trying to let go the betrayed feeling that will eat her from the inside out if she allows it. Clint will be fine, he will fight whatever it is Loki has done to her mortal. Hers. Not his to take, or borrow. Hers.

"We will stop him." Those words remind her of the late-night conversation, the unexpected introduction of her brother to her lovers. The promises between them that they would do what they must with Loki.

"We will save him, too." Hel draws another deep breath, reaching out to unlock the door, so Nick can come in if he would like. She should go to him, to his office, and tell him what he has not yet asked, but she can't. Not yet. It's still not the right time yet.

"He can't be working alone. He fell beyond my reach, beyond where he could not have clawed his way back so soon, when he had not wished to be saved." Jörmungandr's voice is full of the same worry as before, and Hel has to force herself not to respond to that with anger. Even if their father is not working alone, he still stole one of her mortals, and had Clint shoot at her and at Nick.

Clint is not fully compromised, she's certain, or she'd be hiding among Jörmungandr's coils once more, healing wounds that no matter how mortal they might be, will never be fatal. And Nick would be there with her, wondering how he lives.

"Then we find out who is working with him, and we stop them as well. Somehow." Hel doesn't know how they'll do it, though she has hopes for Nick's desired team of superheroes. Fenrir's boy, Stark backed by Jörmungandr, her Natasha. A small team, but one for which she has hope.

* * *

For all the extent of Jörmungandr's coils, they can't find a way to reveal what they discover without revealing more than either of them is prepared to inform the world of. A frustration that drives Hel as she paces the command deck, watching the technicians at their stations, or watching those who've been brought in for Nick's attempt to create a team of superheroes. She hadn't expected Banner, but perhaps she should have.

He has some grasp on the edges of science where Hel and Asgard are at their peak, though it's an imperfect grasp, and he's made himself something that Hel isn't entirely certain of. Akin to the gods, but an angry god, a dangerous god of vengeance and war and destruction.

There is Fenrir's boy, who doesn't have even an inkling that she is the same as the man who turned him inside out, who gave him a chance to grab for godhood. He still does not reach out for it, and that makes her smile a little, hidden and fond.

Her Natasha, who watches Steve with speculation and Banner with wariness. Harder to kill than one expects from looking at her, and trained better than either of the others.

Stark isn't here, but it doesn't surprise Hel much. He will arrive when he wants to, and if he wants to. Jörmungandr would have said something if he weren't coming.

She turns her attention back to the screens, scanning for anything they can use to reveal their father, though to turn him over to SHIELD feels like a betrayal, for all that SHIELD is in part her tool. It will have to work, it will have to help, or they will have betrayed the entire reason for their existence for nothing.

"He is leaving for Stuttgart." Jörmungandr's voice is a hiss that most will mistake for other sounds, but it makes Hel smile, and hope that soon this will work. That soon she might see if she can do something to help her father or if she must stop him entirely.

* * *

She should have expected Thor, should have known that Odin must be awake if her father had fallen, and where Loki goes, Odin's eye does not fail to fall, to ensure that he toes the line Odin has drawn for his behavior. She looks over the five who now gather at Nick's behest, and hopes only that Thor does not recognize her for who and what she is.

It is a hope that goes unanswered, as Thor corners her while no one is paying as much attention to him as they are to Stark and Banner's attempts to find the Tesseract, or to finding where Clint is. Dragging her into a quiet corner, looking down at her with cold blue eyes.

"What are you doing here, Hel?" he asks in the language of Asgard, the one that the mortals might call Old Norse, his voice hard-edged with the same suspicion in his gaze.

"I am doing my job, Thor Odinson." She looks down at his hand on her arm a moment before meeting his gaze with as harsh an expression as his own. "Let go of my arm, or I will happily order you to be escorted to the nearest airlock and left out on the deck."

He does so only with reluctance, and she can see his thoughts clear on his face, as if she were reading a book. That he thinks to tell Nick that he has a traitor in his midst, who might do him greater harm than anyone save Loki himself.

"Tell my mortal what I have not yet, and I will not hesitate to help my father." Because if she is betrayed, she has nothing to lose by helping Loki, and finding out what he has done directly from him. Stop him and save him without the aid of others, and she knows it will be harder that way. "I am not your enemy unless you make me so, uncle," she adds, letting her voice soften slightly. "I want the father I remember back, not the man who is down in that cell."

That makes Thor take a half-step back, his expression confused. He can't know she's made a life for herself, can't know anything of who she is now, only what she had been made as, if he is surprised by this.

"Ask Natasha if you want to know who I am, not who I was." She slips around him, stepping out of reach before she looks back at him. "And do not lay hands on me again. It's called sexual harassment, and it's frowned on by SHIELD."

* * *

"He will not die." Her voice is a whisper, barely audible, and taut with a mix of rage and fear. She had not thought it would be tested now, her efforts to keep her mortals from that final fall, had not thought her father would go so far. It's not one of her lovers, but that doesn't change that he has tried to murder one of her own.

"What do you mean, Hill?" Nick is close enough to hear her, and she should have known that. It hadn't been so long since she had asked him about the blood on the cards Phil had been so fond of. It is the question she has never wanted to hear from her mortals, and has always known would come, in some form or another.

"Phil." Hel stares out the window, still as death, weaving magic around them as quick as thought to keep others from hearing what she doesn't want them to. She should have done so earlier, to keep Nick from hearing what he had. "He can't be dead."

"There are ways to fix it." There is technology that SHIELD has to attempt to heal deeply wounded agents, but even that wouldn't work without a thread holding Phil from the final fall. A tenuous and fragile thread, but one that is there nonetheless.

"We cannot bring back the dead, Nick." She risks a glance sideways at his expression, and is unsurprised at the unreadability of it. Nick has never liked to show what he's thinking, even to her. "He cannot be dead if you're going to bring him back." She pauses, drawing a deep breath. "He will not die."

"How can you be sure of that?" Nick raises an eyebrow, and Hel lets her lips curl in a brittle smile.

"Because I know what has been done to him." She turns to face him fully. "Ask me some other time what that was, and maybe I will answer. This isn't the time or place. We still have to save the world."

* * *

She stands outside the cell Loki is in, bound and gagged this time to keep him from doing harm to anyone, or from escaping. The weaving of magic on them is as strong as she knows how, and she hates that she has been forced to help keep him bound so.

"We will find the maker of the staff." Hel watches as Loki's expression twists in disbelief, but she knows herself and her brothers. She and Jörmungandr will draw the monsters to reveal Fenrir, and then they will retrieve their brother. Once they are together again, they will find the other who caused their father to become the man in the cell, and they will destroy him.

"It may take time, but we can do that. Jörmungandr's coils reach further than Yggdrasil's branches, and between Fenrir and I, we have power enough." Between them, and the heroes that Nick has brought together, and the mortals she and her brothers are most fond of.

A flicker of fear crosses her father's face now, and that makes Hel's own blood chill. Her father fears little, and what he fears is dangerous. But what can she do? She was made to be his weapon, her brothers made to be his shield and his spy; they can do only what they were made to do, to face the threats to their father - to their chosen family - and destroy those threats.


	5. Iron Man 3/Thor 2

"Your mortal is out of his mind." Hel leans her head against the wall of a bathroom that's becoming all too familiar, as Jörmungandr fusses about Stark's refusal to discuss New York, or what happened on the other side of the wormhole, when he was utterly out of Jörmungandr's reach.

"I have been saying that for months." Jörmungandr's voice is full of mixed anger and worry, the anger no doubt fueled by the worry. "This is beyond what I had thought he might do."

"It is a bit extreme and foolish to announce to terrorists where you're living, and then challenge them to come face you." Hel sighs, closing her eyes. This isn't what either of them expected, but they have underestimated Stark in the past, and will no doubt do so in the future.

"At least I have been able to prevent the attack from succeeding at killing him." Jörmungandr sounds frustrated rather than pleased with himself, and Hel opens her eyes to meet the gaze from one of his. "The suit which he had available is no longer powered, and I cannot do anything more until he effects repairs to it and restores the power to it."

Until then, Jörmungandr is helpless, unless he reveals himself to more than merely Stark, and he's even more reluctant than she is to do such a thing. That he's accidentally done so to her lovers has been trouble enough for now.

"He'll take care of himself, and get himself out of trouble. Hasn't he always?" Hel smiles, trying to reassure her brother, though she's not certain entirely herself if Stark will survive this one, or if he's taken on too much with too little backup.

"He usually has someone to aid him." Jörmungandr lets out a gusty sigh, and flicks his tongue out to touch her wrist lightly. "I hope you're right."

Hel doesn't say anything more, doesn't need to. Only reaches out to rub her brother's nose, and waits several long minutes before she releases her weavings and returns to being Maria Hill.

* * *

"I need a favor."

Clint is sitting on the deck of Hel's house, where Natasha had left him after bringing him home. It's the safest place for him to be, between SHIELD medical poking and prodding at him after Loki's trick with the staff, and the contact he'd had during that time with enemies of SHIELD who will want to get their hands on him again.

"A favor from Maria Hill, or a favor from me?" Hel leans against the wall beside the door, giving Clint as much room as she can. The distinction between herself and the person she has made for herself is an important one, because there are things Maria Hill simply cannot do.

"From you." Clint looks away from his contemplation of the large back yard. "A place to stay, where other people won't look for me."

They'll eventually look here, will search for any sign that Maria Hill is hiding Clint Barton at her house, and they cannot find that. But there is nowhere else she can take him where he would truly be safe, not when she's made enemies herself while destroying her father's.

"That's not even a favor I can grant. I can only ask the one who can."

"Jörmungandr or Fenrir?" Clint's lips curl in a wry smile when she twitches in surprise. He's an observant mortal, and she should have remembered that. Being Maria Hill is clouding her judgement, she thinks.

"I don't know precisely where Fenrir is." It's not entirely an answer, but it isn't not, either. "It isn't going to be entirely comfortable, hiding in his coils, not for you. Are you sure you want that?"

"They can't find me where they can't look for me." Clint shrugs. "I just need a place to sort out my head without other people trying to do the job for me." Or trying to make it worse, which goes without saying, and Hel lets out a quiet sigh.

"You can have the guest room until then."

* * *

Extremis, Hel thinks, is one of the more dangerous things that humanity has come up with while exploring the edges of science, and she wishes they hadn't some days. It's the only thing that's saved Potts, and without her, Hel doesn't know how Stark would react - Jörmungandr doesn't think well, and he knows them both better than she.

It is, though, something that makes her worry more for what she's done, and want to find ways to hide her secrets better. Hide the trail, and weave something into the fabric of the universe that will lead those who don't know her astray.

Perhaps even those who do, and that makes her feel hollow in a way that nothing else has save being ripped from her father's side and cast out of Asgard.

"I need your help," she murmurs, when she has time enough alone to begin to work at a solution. Now that Stark is back, and safe, Jörmungandr can worry a little less for a while, and may have the attention to devote to this kernal of an idea.

"What do you need?" Jörmungandr's skills are different, but hopefully between his and hers, they will be enough.

"I need to hide everything I've done behind something the mortals will be glad to chase." As she had hidden what she did with Steve behind serum and vita-rays, though there's enough in both of those to give mortals a chance to figure out most of it. She needs to hide her newer secrets the same way. "And I can't do it alone this time."

* * *

"Are you going to tell us what you did with Phil?" Melinda is leaving tomorrow to fly the airplane Nick has set up for Phil and the team he wants to build, and she is bracketed tonight by Natasha and Hel. A last night together for an indefinite period.

Hel isn't sure she likes having her mortals scattering to the winds - Nick will stay close, and Natasha, but Clint is beyond anyone's reach but Jörmungandr's, and Phil and Melinda will be traveling. It makes her nervous, especially after the mess with her father, no matter how many months have passed since.

"The same thing I did with all of you that I love best." Hel shrugs, pressing a kiss to the side of the Melinda's neck. "It's not going to make you particularly stronger or faster, only more able to cope with illness or injury."

She doesn't mention that it will mean time does not touch them, because that is something mortals don't always seem to take too well to. Steve is adjusting, and well, yet he's still sometimes adrift in this new century. She wishes she could help, but she cannot tell him she was the one who made him what he is on the outside.

"There's more to it than that." Natasha is so certain, and she's right, but Hel won't tell them all of it. Especially not with the project she has with Jörmungandr to hide the truth of the gift she made to them. They will wonder how she managed to achieve her goals, but they're unlikely to suspect the true vector in doing so.

"Perhaps another time." Hel reaches over to twine her fingers with Natasha's, giving them a gentle squeeze. "Nothing that will cause harm, that much I can promise you."

And if not dying does cause harm over time, she'll release them from it, as hard as it will be to let them go.

* * *

"The world is not going to end just because some deranged bastard is pouting over the arrival of new kids on the block." Hel is pacing her deck, to all appearances speaking to the air - even Jörmungandr is probably not listening at this point. She'd given into the desire to throw a temper-fit most of two days ago, though she has been careful not to let the mortals around her notice. They would expect explosions and a body count, or at least screaming and throwing things, anyway.

"Thor isn't helpless." Natasha is sitting on the rail, watching her pace with a flat expression. "And I thought your brother said Loki was with him."

"Which only means that my father and my uncle are out there alone, without any better backup than the Warriors Three and Sif." Hel lets out a hiss, making a rude gesture at the sky, knowing that Heimdall will see it, and possibly so will Odin. She doesn't care if they see her - indeed, she has actively invited their attention for the last week, and nothing has happened. Nothing. As if she's not worth their notice. "They should have more than that."

"You can't babysit them all the time, you know." Natasha glances at the sky a moment, but quickly returns her attention to Hel.

"I don't babysit, I make enemies into scattered pieces of gore." Hel gives Natasha a long look. "Very small pieces of scattered gore. I earned the name the rest of the worlds gave me, thank you."

Natasha's lips quirk up in an amused smile, and she beckons Hel to come over. Waiting patiently until Hel huffs, and complies, then carefully combing her fingers through Hel's hair. "You need to be Maria Hill, the terror of junior agents, and legendary ice queen of SHIELD. Fury's best weapon and tool to the outside world, and his conscious when no one else is looking."

Hel snorts. "I am no one's conscious, Natasha. Sometimes I think you and Melinda are mine."

Natasha shrugs, moving her hands to rest on Hel's shoulders, fingers digging into knotted muscles. "None of us are entirely good people. We just try to do our best for the world we want to see."

"And our enemies keep trying to destroy that world before it can struggle into existence." Hel tilts her head back, glaring at the sky again.

"They'll fail. And if we fall, someone else will take up the fight. You know they will." Natasha shifts, wrapping her arms around Hel's shoulders, pressing a kiss to the top of Hel's head. "Are you going to take the rest of your accumulated vacation, or are you coming back to work before they run out?"

Hel sighs, wanting to continue her temper-fit, but she knows she needs to draw herself back into the role of Maria Hill. Needs to let Jörmungandr worry for their father, and let herself worry more about what this development will mean for Midgard. She hates to do so, wants to shed Maria and go find her father and do what she must to keep him safe.

"Come back to work, Hel. Be Maria Hill again," Natasha murmurs in her ear. "The world still needs saving."

Letting out another sigh, Hel closes her eyes. "Uncle had better save the universe, or I will use his bones for hair pins."

* * *

"He is safe."

No other words need said, and the rest of the story Hel can pry out of her father and brother later. Especially after the visit from Thor with the - apparently inaccurate - news of Loki's death. Fooled once again by her father's weavings, and that's just as well. Better Thor mourns than worries about what Loki may do while free.

"Keep him that way." Hel looks out of the window of her office, over the agents busy at their computers. "I'll worry about Midgard, and yes, even Stark. You keep him safe."

"Find Fenrir." They need their brother, and they need the world to be able to hold its own long enough for them to find whoever had made Loki afraid, and rip that person asunder. And Hel is realistic enough to think that they might need those mortals they've taken under their wings, the heroes that had defeated the Chitauri and other threats.

"I will. Take care of father."

It will be enough. They won't let it be otherwise.


	6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Her brother is loosed by the monsters, and Hel can do nothing to stop him going after her mortal. Jörmungandr can warn her, and she can run as fast as feet never meant for mortal flesh can run, but she cannot stop him. She cannot even catch a glimpse of him, because she cannot be where Maria Hill cannot be, and all she can do is find a quiet place to weave her shield and scream her fury to an uncaring sky.

She would not take Nick as a lover, but he is still hers, and she does not give up what and who is hers easily. Nor will she tolerate the monsters destroying what she has begun, and as soon as she has the freedom to do so, they will learn her names.

"You will have aid soon, sister." It has been centuries since Jörmungandr made such an acknowledgement, as admissions of kin are not easily made between them. Hel looses her weavings, and begins to run again, knowing without needing the call she answers where Nick is being taken, once help arrives. She will not let hers die, and she will not let her brother be lost to them.

"Watch him. Do not lose him." Hel must remember not to snap Maria Hill's phone, and she must remember not to let the mortals see her beneath the weaving of the mortal life. She cannot reveal too much yet; it is still too soon.

"I will not." Jörmungandr is supremely confident, and this time, Hel will believe him. This cannot be the end of what the monsters wish of her brother, and she can only hope they make a mistake that will cost them more dearly than they will know until it is too late to stop them.

She doesn't bother to explain her arrival, only joins Natasha and Steve at the window, her seeming of Maria Hill only barely in place. Natasha's hand finds hers, squeezing tightly for a moment before letting go. Reminding her where she is, and who she must be.

There is a weaving in the surgery suite, and she smiles behind her mask of fear and grief, knowing her father will do what must be done. She knows the monsters must believe they've stolen Nick from her, from life, but they will not allow it. She watches as her father Weaves around the mortal doctors, brilliant green to her gaze and unseen by others.

After, she can see the confusion in Natasha's face, but she will not relieve it while there are those who would badly use that information who could hear her. Says only she must take the body, and leaves Natasha and Steve to do what they can, whatever Nick had set them to.

"He will not wake until we are where he should be safe. If you have somewhere in mind." Loki is hiding behind the seeming of a doctor, and Hel doesn't try to address him as anything but his seeming. A sharp nod to acknowledge what is said, and a gesture for him to follow with what all think is Nick's corpse.

* * *

She is hiding in plain sight, living her life as Maria Hill, when she takes the call from Melinda that threatens to shatter her carefully cultivated calm. Phil's knowledge of what he thinks is the cause of his continued existence is too soon, but she can manage it. She can only hope that he does not dig far enough to find the truth beneath the ruse she and Jörmungandr have created.

"Keep him safe, whatever you need to do in order to achieve that end." She keeps a weaving up to prevent others hearing the conversation, something she has done more and more in the recent years. Her secrets are starting to build a tower that threatens to shatter and collapse around her. Not yet. The delicate structure of half-truths, secrets, and lies has to hold for a while longer.

"Is there anything else I need to know?" Melinda sounds calmer than Hel can manage at the moment, her rage boiling under the surface as she hunts for the monsters who have done the damage to Nick and to her brother. Searches for her brother, so she has a chance to bring him back.

"Nick was shot. Killed by an unknown assassin. Rogers barely caught a glimpse of the man, and couldn't capture him. Keep Phil and your team safe." She pauses, and adds, "Don't tell them yet. Wait until the information is necessary."

She hangs up before Melinda can ask anything more, and she unravels the weaving before she leaves her home. The house will become a trap for anyone not one of hers, and she almost hopes her enemies try to go there. It will be a fitting thing for them to learn the danger she can be too late to save themselves.

* * *

"I should not be alive." Nick is watching her as she paces the small room of the bunker she and Loki had brought him to. Loki still pretends to be a doctor, not caring to have Nick discover his reality yet. Perhaps later, perhaps never, but certainly not now.

"You had a contingency plan for this sort of situation. It was implemented." She turns to look at him, raising an eyebrow in challenge, daring him to contradict her. Even if what he said would be truth, she would prefer he believe something else.

Nick lets out a bark of laughter, giving her a hard look. "Don't think I don't know you're hiding something, Hill. I'm not stupid."

"I never said you were, sir." She sees the smile on Loki's face behind Nick, and very carefully does not return it at the moment. With Odin tucked away, she need not fear she'll lose contact with Loki again, and they will have time enough later to talk.

"Who else have you done this to?" Nick's too shrewd to believe her if she says no one, nor if she says only Phil was the other recipient. He may already have guessed Natasha and Melinda, but there's nothing to be certain that he's found all her mortals out.

"You're intelligent, sir, you'll figure it out. The world still needs saving, and this isn't any more the time and place than last time you asked me."

"Phil, May, Romanov, Barton."

He names off the rest of their poker-group, and she lets her lips twist in a wry smile. Natasha and Melinda have no doubt figured the same out, among other pieces of information she doesn't think they've shared with Nick yet.

Nick watches her for another moment before he continues, "You play a good hand, Hill, but what game are we playing?"

"We're saving the world, and the universe, sir." Hel shrugs. "We have nowhere else to live."

The game of survival, the oldest game in the universe, and one which not all win. She refuses to lose, and she refuses to let those she loves fail to win if she can have a hand in their living.

* * *

It takes a good deal of effort not to simply tase the HYDRA agent while sitting there in the wagon, when she has no reason to use the stick in hand. Silently willing Natasha or Steve, or the man they've picked up - who reminds her a little of Heimdall in his appearance, and a lot of her brother in his attitude - to give her a reason to light it up, to threaten them and then turn against the other agent.

Eventually the stranger gives her one, and she gladly takes her helmet off, and works to free them.

"Nick's favorite escape route won't work with someone behind us." Natasha is looking at her with an intent expression, as they continue to rumble along, the driver unaware of the coup in the back. More fool they for not checking in periodically.

"No, it won't, but it will be good to make them think we used it." Hel is reluctant to use some of her greater skills, but they need to get free without being caught. And that, really, isn't her talent, but she makes use of it.

"I'm missing something here." Steve is looking between them, and Hel smiles, reaching out to touch his shoulder a moment.

"There are several things you're missing, and I'm not inclined to speak of most of them, not yet." She hands the laser to Natasha, to create the hole in the bottom of the vehicle, while she whispers for Jörmungandr, weaving around the four of them to keep Steve and his friend from noticing just what's happening, at least.

The look Steve gives her after they're standing next to a waiting SUV suggests she hadn't really hidden it from him, but he at least doesn't ask her what that was. It doesn't matter so much how they were rescued, only that they were, and that they can trust Maria Hill. Perhaps not Hel, but certainly Maria Hill.

She stands back when they're in the bunker, letting Nick tell them how he was saved - the ruse he has long had in place, rather than the truth - and the extent of his injuries. Which Loki adds to with a touch of acid in his voice, as he tends to the wounds taken by Natasha.

Later, Steve finds her, and pulls her aside with a small frown. "How far does whatever you used to get us out of there extend? What else can you do?"

"A few things, here and there. Ask me some other time, when we're not trying to save the world from monsters." She smiles, reaching out to rest a hand on his shoulder a moment. "Bring a good brandy with you when you do."

She leaves him, heading back for Nick and Loki, knowing Steve will want to ask more questions, but he might have the sense to not ask her in front of too many people. There are other questions he could ask which could be more awkward, and she hopes not to hear them yet.

* * *

Hel can only hope the chips work to give her brother the access he's been unable to manage into the helicarriers. Jörmungandr, with coils that span worlds, kept out of a system that answers to the monsters who've made their brother into something he would not like. A weapon rather than a shield, and that is her role, not his.

She listens as Steve and Sam work to get the three chips in place. One done, Steve onto the next. A second, and Sam again in the air.

Then her brother gets hold of Sam, and Hel draws in a sharp breath. She cannot voice what she knows, cannot reach him through coms, and above all cannot allow the monsters to know the truth of what they have stolen. Cannot give them leverage over her and Jörmungandr more than they already have. Cannot give them her brother.

When he rips the wing from Sam, she winces, though she's glad when he manages to get the second one free and the parachute deployed. At least he's not lost. It leaves Steve alone to get the final chip in place, and face her brother when he cannot remember who he is, much less who he had made himself.

She can only listen - both to the fight between Steve and her brother, and to Natasha and Nick confronting the man who Nick had once called friend, and who is so deeply entwined into HYDRA that he can only be called a monster - and hope that this is a fight they win. Secrets that are splashed across the world, information that Jörmungandr will soak up and forever remember, and their brother free.

They will have to rebuild SHIELD from the ashes, but it will be worth it to take down HYDRA.

"Listen."

Jörmungandr's command comes as the last chip is in place, the new helicarriers given each other as targets, and his coils tightening around them unseen as the monsters begin to destroy themselves. Many heads, all fighting one another.

Hel listens, as Steve tries to get through to her brother, calls him Bucky, James Buchanan Barnes, and tells him that he's known Steve all his life. Hel wants to laugh, but avoids it, knowing it would not do. Nor would undoing the weavings that make her Maria Hill and letting the monsters see just what they've pissed off.

"He will heal, and he will return to us." She is certain of it, even as she listens to Steve refuse to fight, listens to Steve fall without any sound that tells her Fenrir is following him, trying to save him. Better Steve is in the river, as awful as the water is, than in the helicarrier beginning to fall apart.

"Steve." There is a whisper that sounds raw as her brother's mind must be, and she can imagine him diving from the helicarrier after the mortal he had given up so much for. It is a beginning.

"Get me out of here." Hel lets herself be caught in Jörmungandr's coils, swept safely away from the destruction, already aware her mortals are rescuing themselves.


	7. Agents of SHIELD/Epilogue

She could easily destroy the men following her, or hide herself so completely from their sight they would never find her, but she does neither. She is Maria Hill today, and will be Maria Hill for some time yet. Still, there is a lightness to Hel's footsteps that would not be there if she were meeting anyone but who she is.

Natasha is busy with clean-up, Nick with hunting the remnants of HYDRA, Steve with finding Fenrir, and Clint is still enjoying his holiday wherever Jörmungandr took him, so she has time to check on the other two of her mortals. A chance she has not had often enough, and worries about what's happened in the silence.

Melinda has set the place and time, and she needs merely to arrive without a tail immediately on her heels. For a moment, she contemplates doing exactly as she had earlier been thinking she could, but dismisses the thought. It will be better if she takes them out as Maria might.

Only, someone else does it for her, and a smile spreads across Hel's face before she steps into the [diner] she's meeting Melinda in. She's a little early, and Melinda's not far behind her.

"Busy taking out some unwanted observers?" Hel wants to reach out and draw Melinda into an embrace, but they're in public, and there's something to Melinda's expression that suggests it would be unwelcome at the moment.

"Easily." There's no contempt in Melinda's voice, but Hel can infer it regardless. Certainly anyone who is so easily removed from the equation wouldn't have made it as a SHIELD agent under her command. A thing that will not happen again, but that she doesn't mention yet.

"They'll send more. The FBI has been keeping a close watch on me." Not close enough to know the secrets that weren't revealed by the data dump Natasha and Nick had orchestrated, but close enough Hel is best being Maria Hill and not herself.

"I know." Melinda gives her a small smile, before settling in to discuss what they need to before the FBI backup arrives.

* * *

When she finds Phil and most of his team at Providence, she is relieved to see them alive, if mostly for the sake of Melinda and Phil. They're interesting mortals, but they're not hers, nor does she have a great interest in them.

Drawing Phil aside, she wants only to find out what has been happening, and what he needs, but she is little surprised when he brings up his continued existance before anything else.

"Did you know what Fury was planning, Maria?" Phil looks at her with a mix of emotions on his face, but mostly, she thinks he is hoping she didn't. That she doesn't know about TAHITI or the GH-325, the entire ruse that she and Jörmungandr wove into the world and the memories of so many people. That she doesn't know about the origins of Skye, the way they had manipulated the world and one lonely girl so she would not have to talk about the reality of what she had done.

"No." It's a lie, but one that's easy to pretend is truth - Maria Hill never knew about the exact plans Nick had, though Hel certainly did, and had a hand in it. Had created everything that Nick used to heal Phil faster than her own efforts would have seen Phil heal. Given the mortals science and technology they perhaps are not ready for because she will not lose one of her own.

Phil watches her for a long moment before he nods, hopefully because he believes what she's said. Their conversation after certainly supports that theory, turning to other news - such as the fact one of Phil's team is HYDRA, not SHIELD. A monster that was close to her own, and she will not let that stand.

The mortals she brought with her are overwhelmed and left to explain how they were defeated to their superiors, at least once they free themselves. Hel has to restrain the desire to shed Maria Hill for the hunt that follows, tracking the monster who has the mortal Phil wants to rescue.

Harder still is merely being a distraction, a delay that allows Phil to get closer to the monster, and to retrieve his missing team member. She wants to destroy Ward as completely as she did the enemies of her father, and it takes an effort not to unleash herself.

An effort that will hopefully not cost her more than just a few hours of discomfort.

* * *

"You didn't actually tell me why you're out here, Maria." Phil is watching her, curious, as they rest while waiting for Melinda to return with what she's retrieving. Hel knows Phil will continue to chase after HYDRA - and Ward - until they've settled their vendetta. She actually rather approves, though she doesn't make that obvious. Enemies should be destroyed, particularly ones like HYDRA who threaten more than just their direct enemies.

"Where else would I go? SHIELD is gone, Phil." She glances over at him, catching the flash of surprise on his face. "There was too much of HYDRA through it to save any of it. You have to destroy something like that root and branch, and what SHIELD was - that was ripe for the rot of HYDRA. If it's ever rebuilt, it can't be what it was."

"What is Nick planning for that?" Phil looks away, a small frown on his face. Worried, perhaps, for what Nick might do in rebuilding SHIELD.

Hel shrugs. "I don't know. I don't know if he's planning on doing anything himself, except conduct his own hunt for what's left of HYDRA." She has other plans, but she's not going to finalize them until she can talk to both Melinda and Natasha. She won't take charge of SHIELD, though, and she has never intended to do so, no matter that she let Nick make her his Deputy Director.

"I can understand that." Phil sounds as if he would like to do something like that himself. "What about you?"

"Not SHIELD. The rest of my plans I'd rather keep close for now. Until I can talk to Melinda and Natasha." She can see the smile cross Phil's face, and lets herself return it. "You should make your own plans, Phil. After you catch Ward and Garrett. You and your team."

"They're my team." Phil sounds as if he intends to keep them, though how they would operate without an agency to back them, Hel isn't certain. She could give them aid, but they would learn more than she wants, and they aren't suited to acting beyond the scope of Midgard.

"They're agents without an agency, Phil. All of us are. You should let them make their own choices - if they chose to stay, you have to find somewhere that will take rogue agents in, because that's what you'll be if you go hunting."

She suspects if Phil let Stark or any of the other Avengers know he's alive, they'd be happy to take him in, but she's not sure he'll do that, since he hasn't yet.

"We're a team, and we'll decide where to go next as a team. Even if that's going different directions." Phil is nothing if not stubborn, and Hel has always liked that about him.

"Just figure out what's best for you and them, and make sure you stick to it." She pauses, drawing in a breath before she stands. "I'll be in touch, Phil. Let you know if Nick's plans or mine change."

"Tell Natasha I'm fine?" Phil looks up at her a moment, and Hel tilts her head before nodding. "And find Clint. He's been missing since New York."

"Not missing." Hel quirks one corner of her mouth up. "He's taking an extended vacation. And currently is stranded until his ride decides to bring him home."

Phil raises an eyebrow, and Hel just smiles wider, shaking her head. She's not telling him here or now. Later, though. Always, always later - she hopes too much to never have to tell, but she has a sense later is coming far too soon.

* * *

"Where are you going next?" Natasha is leaning against Hel's shoulder as they look out over the yard of the house - she should put it on the market, with Melinda staying with Phil and the team, and her plans to head to New York to find out about the potential of employment with Stark Industries. It will be good to be nearer the only completely physical parts of her brother for a while.

"I was going to see if Stark Industries has a use for a former deputy director of an international spy agency." Hel smiles a little, though the expression doesn't last. "Are you staying in Washington?"

"Someone has to deal with Congress, and I'm enjoying sparring with generals and senators." Natasha shrugs, shifting to wrap her arm around Hel's waist. "Should I look for an apartment?"

"If you're willing to rattle around in this place by yourself, I'll keep it off the market. I can find an apartment wherever I need to go."

"A protected place to go to ground is always a good thing." Natasha smiles, looking over at Hel. "Just leave the security in place."

"That's simple enough." Hel chuckles. It's always easier to leave a weaving in place than to unravel it. "Keep an eye out for Clint. I don't know when Jörmungandr will decide to give him a lift home."

"I will." Natasha traces slow circles on the skin at Hel's hip, silent for a long moment. "Is Melinda planning to come home?"

"She still has to keep an eye on Phil. He knows some of how he's still alive when he should be dead." She still isn't sure she's forgiven her father that, but Loki's at least tried to pay some wergild. It will be enough, in the long run.

"But not all of it." Natasha studies Hel's face, meeting her gaze when she looks over at Natasha. "Do any of us know all of it?"

"No." Hel is quiet a moment. "I've hidden so much for so long because it's not safe, or because mortals don't seem to be ready for it. You might have to ask me more than once."

"I'll ask as many times as I need to." Natasha quirks one corner of her mouth up in a wry smile. "I have all the time in the world to do so, don't I?"

Hel blinks, watching her a moment before leaning in to touch her forehead against Natasha's, just sitting there a moment and sharing breath. "As long as you want."

"Good." Natasha kisses her, soft and chaste. "I'll worry about the rest later."

* * *

Drawing a breath, Hel steps inside the office she's been led to by a secretary, smiling at the HR director of Stark Industries. She could have used the connections she has to talk to Potts directly, but it's better to go through the motions of seeking a job, to go through all the layers of interviews and paperwork.

"I've been informed this is a mere formality prior to hiring you to work at Stark Tower." The HR director looks a little amused and a little exasperated, but this is probably not the first time there have been irregularities in the hiring. "So, let's get started on the paperwork, shall we?"

It had been meant to be an interview, but apparently Stark or Potts doesn't want to wait that long - or perhaps it's Jörmungandr interfering - so everything is a little accelerated.

"Certainly." She settles into the chair across from the HR director, and smiles. Time to begin a new chapter in the life of Maria Hill.

**Author's Note:**

> While I changed some of the details from the on-screen events - primarily dialogue, and mostly where I don't recall it - the major events remain the same through the end of the first season of Agents of SHIELD, and through the end of Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier.
> 
> From here, I'm not sure what's happening in this AU yet, but I have some thoughts and vague plans, including some threads that were started in this story.


End file.
